Is anyone else having a misreable time trying to sell their house?

[Roseflower]

Our house has been on the market since June and trying to sell it - it's so depressing. Our one offer fell through and since then it just been no more offers.

Buyers (this month we have only had FTB) seem to be getting more and more unrealistic in what they expect for their money around here.

I hate everything about selling a house- the horrible estate agents, the constant calls from rival estate agents touting, the time waster people, rushing around like mad tidying up after dd for hours, giving up our plans to get ready for viewings, people saying nasty things about our family home... but worse in the uncertainity of it all.

Be good to know other people feel as down as me for some support. Or even better people who did feel like me but now things have turned out well!

You also have to look at the positive side of a house price correction. Think of all the young women in the uk who dream of starting a family and would love a nice 3 bedroom semi detached house for half the price that most people have purchased there homes for.

Once the house prices drop 40-50% maybe this will be one of the first steps towards rebuilding a more stable and fair society.

Take one for the team :)

'People should get real and drop their prices and stop being greedy'

Agreed. But many can't as they'll be underwater on their mortgages. Mortgages that they may have been increased to fund non asset or wasting asset purchases, such as, new kitchens, cars, holidays etc.

Those with real or with potential negative equity have two choices:

1. Stay put and pay the monthly mortgage until house prices rise enough.
2. Take a hit, move on and carry the debt.

Very low interest rates and ridiculous lending agreements have driven houses to the inflated prices being expected by current sellers. These lending terms are now in reverse and sellers are feeling the pain.

House buyers with stupidly large loan to value mortgages were not conned. They elected to buy into a highly leveraged and illiquid "investment".

I am now hoping house prices fall by 50%. We will be in negative equity and have to take a some debt to our next house when we sell but we will be better off. If prices fell 50% the mortgage would be £1,000 a month cheaper so in time we could pay the debt off and then our children would be able to buy when they need to. At the monent, with their high house prices the bankers have turned us two and our children into debt slaves for life.

Honestly - I simply can't see house prices dropping by 40-50%. I think hope is overtaking reason, I'm afraid. Why? Simple case of supply and demand. Too many people and not enough houses in London / the Home Counties. As I see it, there will be a price drop - maybe as much as 15%, but as soon as buyers start buying, prices will rise again. Mind you, I'm just sticking a damp finger up in the air to test the wind, just like everyone else .

We are desperate to sell my husband is to be made redundant, we have a mortgage of £400k and the EA told us it was worth £500k. We ppaid £450 for it two years ago. London SW16 We have a personal loan of £25k each which wwe used for the kitchen and bathroom

Been on the market since May and 2 offers of £400k and £415

We spent nigh on 70K on kitchin and 3 bathroom last year and I am very house pround and it was a bespoke kitchen and when we have viewers the place is rendered almost sterile.

Nextdoor sold last year for £500k

I cant believe the market is that poor but we went multi last week and had just 2 viewings

'If all this helps "talk" house prices to a place where they are affordable, then GOOD.'

say it three times if it makes you feel better.listen,they'll never let house prices go down.They lead the economy

noddynomates,
It sounds like your kitchen and bathrooms are lovely but have you thought about a vase of twigs in the lounge?

naughty cassandra

'I am now hoping house prices fall by 50%. We will be in negative equity and have to take a some debt to our next house when we sell but we will be better off. If prices fell 50% the mortgage would be £1,000 a month cheaper so in time we could pay the debt off and then our children would be able to buy when they need to.'

cassandra,you dont understand economics do you.rising house prices underpins the economy,everyone knows that.you take away rising hosue p[rices and unemployment will rocket.you may have a cheap hosue but you'll be unemployed unless you work for the govt.or for channel 4.

I would be surprised if they dropped much at all in London and the home counties; will be different in t'north but even so I doubt they will drop by as much as 50%.

'As I see it, there will be a price drop - maybe as much as 15%'

15% is a bit much.can't see it.where I am,they're rising again,but then the villages around Exeter always have been different.

I hear Morningside in Edinburgh is similar.

pedroforthefed,
I don't think you understand economics.

If house prices were cheaper people would have more disposable income to spend in the economy. Money tied up in houses is unproductive. When it was used to create businesses and jobs we had a proper economy, now it is "built on sand" as Vince Cable would say.

'We spent nigh on 70K on kitchen and 3 bathroom last year and I am very house proud and it was a bespoke kitchen and when we have viewers the place is rendered almost sterile'

You are saying you spent about 17% of your house value on somewhere to heat up a tin of bean and have a sh@t, shave and a shower ???

Why ?

Noddynomates - take the £415k and consider yourself lucky

IME as a buyer, people have often spent lots on their kitchens or other home improvements and they are very proud of them and the price of the house reflects them, but they aren't actually my taste so I don't value them and indeed sometimes am thinking about how much it would cost me to change them.
It depresses me no end when I go round a house and the basic structure or layout is great but the price reflects the vile granite worktops or marble bathrooms or the fancily landscaped garden when all I want is a bit of lawn. Such a pity.

To be fair to all the doom mongers(joke)It is now or never really.Prices need to half if they are to even vaguely correalate with average salaries.So 15% imho would be a lucky escape.I think at least 25% and up to 40 once QE stops and rates rise

Cassandra pedro understands economics very well, he's from the other place....

I do think Nomad and others with similar sentiments are a little harsh.
A lot of good decent people are going to be badly hurt when the inevitable happens. Sure there were many that were greedy, others bought the hype and rushed in maybe feeling it was their chance to get on the ladder and will get burned.

Yep a correction is underway, I saw it coming long ago. Gloating at others misfortune aint warranted imo, but each to their own I suppose.

what is the other place?

'what is the other place?'
MSE

'now it is "built on sand" as Vince Cable would say.'

is he on Home and Away?

Vincent Cable is one of our fine upstanding politicians. They are guiding the UK to a better place.

I'm having a miserable time looking to buy a house!! But doesn't compare to those who have put their faith in estate agents and banks who have behaved outrageously the past 10+ years and pushed prices up & up & up etc, and bought at overinflated prices.

I don't know what's happening to the market now, or what more QE will do to the market, but I do know that it is much much harder to borrow money for a mortgage, and much harder to get a functional chain in place, so if I was selling right now I would seriously consider a genuine offer made by buyers who have a mortgage agreed and can move with either no chain or a very simple chain already in place.

Buyers aren't looking for a 'bargain', we/they are genuinely looking for a home to buy and will pay as much as they can afford - likely to be less than previously as it's simply not possible to borrow as much as previously.

Buyers & sellers are too far apart at the moment and the chasm has been getting wider. If we can come to a happy compromise over prices we can get moving.

IMHO, prices for the sort of house I'm looking for at the moment are ludicrous - and I've seen them rocket the last 5 years. Lots of people like us just aren't going to buy.

i echo the thoughts of a poster a few pages back that some vendors are being unrealistic about the price they can expect for their house.

remember a lot of buyers are using tools like nethouseprices and have access to stats and information about the housing market and falls to come over the next few years.

remember house prices peaked in 2007, so it's likely if you bought at that point or shortly after you've paid over the odds so don't expect to get what you paid for it even with renovation costs. time to wake up and smell the coffee.

house prices need to fall - end of! the UK has been one big party for the past 10 years and now its time to face the mother of all hangovers! you can thank Labour for that the prolonged the agnony the country will now face by pumping money into the system without just cause but to make them look good. house prices fell by something like 3% last month alone. it's not going to stop there.

i also don't think the banks should be blamed for pushing prices up. at the end of the day its the person getting the loan/mortgage to blame - only borrow what you can afford to repay. too many people ignored these wise words. the market went nuts as people thought it was an easy way to make money. it's a market - it will go up and it will go down. and i am afraid to say it's time to see it go back down.

I think it is the banks to blame - the brakes were taken off sensible lending limit criteria and affordability checks all too readily. They were supposed to be the professionals but only looked at how much they would make out of the loan - purely profit profit profit - and bonuses of course. And then Estate Agents - well, it's just a number to them isn't it - a number and a big fat commission for doing FA.

It's hardworking people who are trying to achieve and maintain a decent home that lose out. Is difficult not to overstretch yourself when EAs are overvaluing, and let's face it if one person decided the price was too high they couldn't buy the house - vendor & EA wouldn't accept that. No, but someone else would be there to buy it instead - because the bank said they could. And so it went on.

Not any more though. There is a limit.

I don't understand the posters who say prices will not fall, as if the government can do anything to stop them.

Our economy isn't built on house prices. Why will people be unemployed if the value of their house drops? Less money being paid in interest to the bank every month means more money to spend in the wider economy, thus creating wealth and jobs. It's not rocket science.

Neither is the logic that prices will fall. Over the last 10 years borrowers were able to borrow up to 5 times their salary. Guess what - house prices shot up to 5 times the average salary. Now banks will not lend more than 3 times salary ..... hmmmm (strokes beard).

House prices were never about how much people earned or how much money they had, they were about how much people could borrow.

London prices will always be a little different due to the number of ludicrously paid people who don't need a mortgage at all but will pay millions to live in a terrace.